Westlaw is discontinuing free printing as of June 17, 2013. Students will no longer be able to send Westlaw research to the dedicated (free) Westlaw printers. The printers will be removed soon.
The Lexis free printers will still be available.
Our phone problem has been fixed, so you can call the library again
Our phone system is down this morning. If you need to contact the law library please email us at Law.LibRef@widener.edu
A share certificate issued by the Springer Heirs National Associated Company in 1908
In 1883, two men, George W. Ponton and Charles H. Bierce were arraigned in New York on charges of larceny. They had persuaded a third man, Charles W. Van Dorn, to loan them $200, which would be repaid when Bierce came into a fortune of $90,000. Bierce claimed to be one of the Springer heirs, descendants of Charles Christopher Springer, an early settler of Wilmington, Delaware. Springer, it was said, had owned a large portion of the land where the city of Wilmington now stands, which he had leased to Old Swedes Church, which in turn leased it to the city of Wilmington for 99 years. The lease was now up and soon the city would settle with the heirs for 20 million dollars. There was, of course, no fortune and Van Dorn never got his $200 back. But the story of the fabulous Springer fortune waiting in Wilmington lived on for almost another hundred years, as fortune hunters, confidence tricksters and honestly hopeful people named Springer organized associations, collected money, and badgered Wilmington officials in a futile effort to claim the untold millions waiting for them.
Holy Trinity or Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, Delaware
The quest for the mythical Springer fortune seems to have begun in the 1870s when J.N.W Springer and David Gillespie formed the Springer Heirs Association, to raise money to investigate the claim to the estate. It was probably inspired by earlier very similar claims in the 1830s and 1840s involving property in Manhattan owned by Trinity Church (Bogardus v. Trinity Church, 4 Paige Ch. 178 (1835) and Humbert v. Trinity Church, 24 Wend. 587 (1840)) and the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, one of which actually went to the U.S. Supreme Court (Harpending v. Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of City of New York, 41 U.S. 455, 10 L. Ed. 1029 (1842)) The fact that the heirs lost in all of these cases doesn’t seem to have deterred the Springers.
All through the 19th and into the 20th century the search for the fortune continued, with the size of the prize growing every year. Springer’s supposed property grew from encompassing a part of Wilmington to the entire city, and to include the site of the DuPont gunpowder mills for good measure. Charles Springer was said to have been a Swedish baron who had a fortune hidden away in a Swedish bank, or walled up in a hidden building, or possibly buried in a tomb. Con artists offered to sell Springer’s will for large amounts of money, lawyers spent years in Europe doing research at the heirs’ expense, and the presidents of various Springer heirs associations collected money which was mostly spent on hotels while traveling the country and collecting more money. So many people contacted Wilmington officials asking about the fortune, that the city was forced to print pamphlets denying the story.
Newspapers across the US added to the confusion by printing inspiring stories about the ordinary people who were possible heirs, including two manicurist sisters in San Francisco, a kidnapped child in California and a railroad yardmaster from Reno. Only the Wilmington papers expressed any skepticism about the story, generally portraying the heirs as hopeless suckers and pests.
Interest in the Springer estate seems to have died down now, except for a few mentions on genealogy websites, but similar hoaxes continue. In 2001, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case in which the Pennsylvania Association of Edwards Heirs (who claim their ancestor was the rightful owner of a large portion of lower Manhattan) sued Wachovia Bank after nearly 1.5 million dollars in association dues had been squandered by the officers of the association. Pennsylvania Ass’n of Edwards Heirs v. Rightenour, 235 F.3d 839 (3d Cir. 2000) The heirs lost.
Don’t forget the law library is closed Memorial Day Weekend May 25 – 27. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again on Tuesday May 28th!
Here are our hours for the summer semester. Please note that we are closed Memorial Day Weekend.
Summer Hours 2013
Monday, May 20 through Sunday, July 28
Closed Memorial Day Weekend May 25 – 27
Closed July 4
A complete list of library hours is always available on our webpage.
The Delaware campus library will be closed this Saturday the 18th for Commencement. Congratulations to all our graduates!
We’ll be open on Sunday the 19th from noon to 5 PM. For a full list of library hours this summer see our webpage.
Yes, finals are here and I know what you’re thinking, “What can the law library do to help me with finals?” (Just work with me here.) So here’s a short list:
So visit the library for everything you need to study!
The Delaware campus law library will be open extended hours during final exams. Our hours will be:
After the exam period our hours will be:
For a complete list of hours please see the law library webpage.
The cost of subscription based legal information continues to rise as courts, firms and non-profits are looking for ways to cut costs. All legal professionals should be aware of the resources that are available for free online.
As part of the Law Library’s National Library Week Celebration (April 14th – 20th), come learn about all of the free primary legal materials available online. We’ll cover Federal, State and Local legal resources available for free on the Internet as well as advanced searching techniques that will help you in “the real world.”
The workshop will be Thursday, April 18th at 12:00pm and again at 5:00pm in the Marshall Dennehey Room on the third floor of the library.
Contact Reference Librarian, Maggie Stewart Adams for more information at: mmstewart@widener.edu
